■ Tsfos* 

THE  PERIPLUS  OF 


HANNO 


A VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVERY 
DOWN  THE  WEST  AFRICAN  COAST, 
BY  A CARTHAGINIAN  ADMIRAL 
OF  THE  FIFTH  CENTURY  B.  C 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  GREEK 

BY 

WILFRED  H.  SCHOFF,  a.  m. 

Secretary  of  the  Commercial  Museum,  Philadelphia 
With  explanatory  passages  quoted  from  numerous  authors 


THE  PERIPLUS  OF  HANNO 


Copyright  1912 
by  the  Commercial  Museum 
Philadelphia 


The  illustration  on  the  title-page  is  redrawn  from 
a Sidonian  coin  of  the  5 th  century  B.  C.,  in  the 
Hunterian  Collection  at  Glasgow. 


APR  101912 


& 


THE  PERIPLUS  OF  HANNO 


A VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVERY 
DOWN  THE  WEST  AFRICAN  COAST, 
BY  A CARTHAGINIAN  ADMIRAL 
OF  THE  FIFTH  CENTURY  B.  C. 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  GREEK 

BV 

WILFRED  H.  SCHOFF,  a.  m. 

Secretary  of  the  Commercial  Museum,  Philadelphia 
IVith  explanatory  passages  quoted  from  numerous  authors 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  COMMERCIAL  MUSEUM 
19  12 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/periplusofhannov00hann_2 


3 


THE  VOYAGE  OF  HANNO,  KING  OF  THE 
CARTHAGINIANS 

To  the  Libyan  regions  of  the  earth  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules, 

which  he  dedicated  also  in  the  Temple  of  Baal,  affixing  this 

1.  It  pleased  the  Carthaginians  that  Hanno  should  voy- 
age outside  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  found  cities  of  the 
Libyphoenicians.  And  he  set  forth  with  sixty  ships  of  fifty 
oars,  and  a multitude  of  men  and  women,  to  the  number  of 
thirty  thousand,  and  with  wheat  and  other  provisions. 

2.  After  passing  through  the  Pillars  we  went  on  and 
sailed  for  two  days’  journey  beyond,  where  we  founded  the 
first  city,  which  we  called  Thymiaterium ; it  lay  in  the  midst 
of  a great  plain. 

3.  Sailing  thence  toward  the  west  we  came  to  Solois,  a 
promontory  of  Libya,  bristling  with  trees. 

4.  Having  set  up  an  altar  here  to  Neptune,  we  proceeded 
again,  going  toward  the  east  for  half  the  day,  until  we  reached 
a marsh  lying  no  great  way  from  the  sea,  thickly  grown  with 
tall  reeds.  Here  also  were  elephants  and  other  wild  beasts 
feeding,  in  great  numbers. 

5.  Going  beyond  the  marsh  a day’s  journey,  we  settled 
cities  by  the  sea,  which  we  called  Caricus  Murus,  Gytta,  Acra, 
Melitta  and  Arambys. 

6.  Sailing  thence  we  came  to  the  Lixus,  a great  river 
flowing  from  Libya.  By  it  a wandering  people,  the  Lixitae, 
were  pasturing  their  flocks;  with  whom  we  remained  some 
time,  becoming  friends. 

7.  Above  these  folk  lived  unfriendly  ^Ethiopians,  dwelling 
in  a land  full  of  wild  beasts,  and  shut  off  by  great  mountains, 
from  which  they  say  the  Lixus  flows,  and  on  the  mountains 
live  men  of  various  shapes,  cave-dwellers,  who,  so  the  Lixitae 
say,  are  fleeter  of  foot  than  horses. 


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8.  Taking  interpreters  from  them,  we  sailed  twelve 
days  toward  the  south  along  a desert,  turning  thence  toward 
the  east  one  day’s  sail.  There,  within  the  recess  of  a bay  we 
found  a small  island,  having  a circuit  of  fifteen  stadia;  which 
we  settled,  and  called  it  Cerne.  From  our  journey  we  judged 
it  to  be  situated  opposite  Carthage ; for  the  voyage  from  Car- 
thage to  the  Pillars  and  thence  to  Cerne  was  the  same. 

9.  Thence,  sailing  by  a great  river  whose  name  was 
Chretes,  we  came  to  a lake,  which  had  three  islands,  larger 
than  Cerne.  Running  a day’s  sail  beyond  these,  we  came  to 
the  end  of  the  lake,  above  which  rose  great  mountains,  peo- 
pled by  savage  men  wearing  skins  of  wild  beasts,  who  threw 
stones  at  us  and  prevented  us  from  landing  from  our  ships. 

10.  Sailing  thence,  we  came  to  another  river,  very  great 
and  broad,  which  was  full  of  crocodiles  and  hippopotami. 
And  then  we  turned  about  and  went  back  to  Cerne. 

11.  Thence  we  sailed  toward  the  south  twelve  days,  fol- 
lowing the  shore,  which  was  peopled  by  ^Ethiopians  who  fled 
from  us  and  would  not  wait.  And  their  speech  the  Lixitae 
who  were  with  us  could  not  understand. 

12.  But  on  the  last  day  we  came  to  great  wooded  mountains. 
The  wood  of  the  trees  was  fragrant,  and  of  various  kinds. 

13.  Sailing  around  these  mountains  for  two  days,  we  came 
to  an  immense  opening  of  the  sea,  from  either  side  of  which 
there  was  level  ground  inland;  from  which  at  night  we  saw 
fire  leaping  up  on  every  side  at  intervals,  now  greater,  now  less. 

14.  Having  taken  in  water  there,  we  sailed  along  the 
shore  for  five  days,  until  wre  came  to  a great  bay,  which  our 
interpreters  said  was  called  Horn  of  the  West.  In  it  there 
was  a large  island,  and  within  the  island  a lake  of  the  sea,  in 
which  there  was  another  island.  Landing  there  during  the 
day,  we  sawr  nothing  but  forests,  but  by  night  many  burning 
fires,  and  we  heard  the  sound  of  pipes  and  cymbals,  and  the 


5 


noise  of  drums  and  a great  uproar.  Then  fear  possessed  us, 
and  the  soothsayers  commanded  us  to  leave  the  island. 

15.  And  then  quickly  sailing  forth,  we  passed  by  a burn- 
ing country  full  of  fragrance,  from  which  great  torrents  of  fire 
flowed  down  to  the  sea.  But  the  land  could  not  be  come  at 
for  the  heat. 

16.  And  we  sailed  along  with  all  speed,  being  stricken  by 
fear.  After  a journey  of  four  days,  we  saw  the  land  at  night 
covered  with  flames.  And  in  the  midst  there  was  one  lofty 
fire,  greater  than  the  rest,  which  seemed  to  touch  the  stars. 
By  day  this  was  seen  to  be  a very  high  mountain,  called 
Chariot  of  the  Gods. 

17.  Thence,  sailing  along  by  the  fiery  torrents  for  three 
days,  we  came  to  a bay,  called  Horn  of  the  South. 

18.  In  the  recess  of  this  bay  there  was  an  island,  like  the 
former  one,  having  a lake,  in  which  there  was  another  island, 
full  of  savage  men.  There  were  women,  too,  in  even  greater 
number.  They  had  hairy  bodies,  and  the  interpreters  called 
them  Gorilla.  When  we  pursued  them  we  were  unable  to 
take  any  of  the  men ; for  they  all  escaped,  by  climbing  the 
steep  places  and  defending  themselves  with  stones;  but  we 
took  three  of  the  women,  who  bit  and  scratched  their  leaders, 
and  would  not  follow  us.  So  we  killed  them  and  flayed  them, 
and  brought  their  skins  to  Carthage.  For  we  did  not  voyage 
further,  provisions  failing  us. 


MAP  to  illustrate  THE  PERIPLUS  of  HANNO 


ROUTE  SCALE  = f 


7 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  VOYAGE  OF  HANNO 

The  Carthaginian  colonies  mentioned  in  this  text  can  be  iden- 
tified only  in  the  most  general  way  with  any  existing  settlement. 
They  were  destroyed  and  abandoned  so  many  centuries  ago  that  no 
traces  are  likely  to  remain,  although  the  unsettled  condition  of  the 
country,  which  has  remained  to  the  present  time,  has  prevented  any 
exploration  of  the  interior  or  even  of  the  coast  itself. 

§ 1.  The  Pillars  of  Hercules  are,  of  course,  the  Straits  of 
Gibraltar. 

§ 2.  The  first  city,  called  in  the  text  Thymiaterium,  is  identi- 
fied by  Muller  as  Mehedia  at  the  mouth  of  the  Sbou  River  at  about 
34°  20'  N.  The  name  of  this  city  as  we  have  it  is  a Greek  corrup- 
tion and  to  the  eyes  of  various  commentators  suggests  Dumathir — flat 
ground,  or  city  of  the  plain. 

§ 3.  The  Promontory  of  Solois  is  probably  the  same  as  Cape 
Cantin  at  32°  30'  N. 

§ 4.  The  section  of  marshy  ground  is  probably  reached  on 
both  sides  of  Cape  Safi,  32°  20'  N. 

§ 5.  The  location  of  the  five  colonies  mentioned  in  this  para- 
graph is  uncertain.  Muller  places  the  first  at  the  ruins  of  Agouz,  32°  5 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Tensift  River.  The  second  perhaps  at  Mogador, 
31°  30’.  The  third  at  Agadir,  30°  25’.  The  fourth  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Messa  River,  30°  5’.  The  fifth,  perhaps,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Gueder  River,  29°  10’,  or  at  Araouas,  29°. 

§ 6.  The  Lixus  River  is  quite  certainly  the  modern  Wadi 
Draa,  emptying  into  the  ocean  at  28°  30’. 

§ 8.  The  island  of  Cerne,  lying  in  the  recess  of  a bay,  is  iden- 
tified with  the  modern  Herne  Island  within  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  de 
Oro  at  about  23°  45’  N.  The  relative  distances  as  mentioned  in  this 
paragraph  from  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  to  Carthage  and  to  Herne 
Island  respectively,  are  very  nearly  correct. 

§ 9.  The  Chretes  River  Muller  identifies  with  the  modern 
St.  Jean  at  19°  25’,  at  the  mouth  of  which  the  three  islands  exist 
as  the  text  describes. 

§ 10,  The  great  river  full  of  crocodiles  and  hippopotami  is 
identified  with  the  Senegal  at  about  16°  30’  N. 

§§  12  and  13.  These  great  wooded  mountains  around  which  the 
expedition  sailed,  can  be  nothing  but  Cape  Verde,  and  the  immense 
opening  of  the  sea  is  the  mouth  of  the  Gambia  River  at  13°  30'  N. 

§ 14.  The  bay  called  Horn  of  the  West  reaches  from  12°  to 
to  11°  N.  and  the  islands  are  the  modern  Bissagos. 


8 


§ 16.  The  high  mountain  called  Chariot  of  the  Gods,  Muller 
identifies  with  Mt.  Kakulima  at  9°  30'  N. 

§§  17  and  18.  The  island  enclosed  within  the  bay  called  Horn 
of  the  South,  it  is  now  agreed  by  all  commentators,  is  the  modern 
Sherboro  Sound  in  the  British  colony  of  Sierra  Leone,  about  7°  30'  N. 

This  identification  of  the  places  named  in  the  text  extends 
Hanno’s  voyage  about  29  degrees  of  latitude  along  the  West  African 
coast,  or  a total  length  outside  of  Gibraltar,  following  the  direction  of 
the  shore  line,  of  about  2600  miles. 


EDITIONS  OF  THE  PERIPLUS  OF  HANNO 

(From  Bunbury,  History  of  Ancient  Geography,  I,  332-3) 

“The  narrative  of  Hanno  was  certainly  extant  in  Greek  at  an  early 
period.  It  is  cited  in  the  work  ascribed  to  Aristotle  on  Marvellous 
Narratives  (§  37)  which  belongs  to  the  3d  century  B.  C. ; as  well  as 
by  Mela,  Pliny,  and  many  later  writers;  and  Pliny  expressly  speaks 
of  it  as  the  source  whence  many  Greek  and  Roman  writers  had 
derived  their  information,  including,  as  he  considered,  many  fables. 
(Pliny,  H.  N.,  V.  8.) 

“The  authenticity  of  the  work  may  be  considered  as  unquestion- 
able. The  internal  evidence  is  conclusive  upon  that  point.  There 
is  considerable  doubt  as  to  the  date  of  the  voyage.  On  this  point  the 
narrative  itself  gives  no  information,  and  the  name  Hanno  was  very 
common  at  Carthage.  (See  Smith’s  Diet,  of  Biog.,  Art.  Hanno). 
But  it  has  been  generally  agreed  that  this  Hanno  was  either  the  father 
or  the  son  of  the  Hamilcar  who  led  the  great  Carthaginian  expedition 
to  Sicily  in  B.  C.  480.  In  the  former  case  the  Periplus  may  be  prob- 
ably assigned  to  a date  about  B.  C.  520;  in  the  latter  it  must  be 
brought  down  to  about  B.  C.  470.  This  last  view  is  that  adopted  by 
C.  Muller  in  his  edition  of  the  Periplus  ( Geograph't  Greeci  Minores,  I, 
xxi-xxiv),  where  the  whole  subject  is  fully  discussed;  but  as  between 
him  and  his  grandfather,  the  choice  is  hardly  more  than  conjectural. 
M.  Vivien  de  St.  Martin,  however,  prefers  the  date  of  B.  C.  570, 
which  had  been  previously  adopted  by  Bougainville  ( Mcmoires 
de  /’  A cademie  des  Inscriptions , xxviii,  287). 

“The  Periplus  of  Hanno  was  first  published  at  Basle  in  1533  (as 
an  appendix  to  the  Periplus  of  the  Erythraean  Sea),  from  a manuscript  in 
the  Heidelberg  library  {Cod.  Pal.  Grac . , 398),  the  only  one  in  which 
it  is  found.  There  have  been  numerous  subsequent  editions;  of  these 
the  one  by  Falconer,  8vo,  1797,  and  Kluge,  8vo,  Leipzig,  1829,  are 
the  most  valuable.  The  treatise  is  also  included  in  the  editions  of  the 


9 


Geographi  Graci  Minores  by  Hudson,  Gail,  and  C.  Muller.  The 
valuable  and  elaborate  commentary  by  the  latest  editor  may  be  con- 
sidered as  in  a great  measure  superseding  all  others.  Besides  all 
these  editions,  it  has  been  made  the  subject  of  elaborate  investigations 
by  Gosselin,  Bougainville,  Major  Rennell,  Heeren,  Ukert,  Vivien  de 
St.  Martin,  and  other  geographical  writers.*  Indeed  there  are  few 
ancient  writings  that  have  been  the  subject  of  more  copious  commen- 
tary in  proportion  to  its  very  limited  extent.  The  earliest  of  these 
commentaries,  inserted  by  Ramusio  in  his  collection  of  Voyages 
(Venice,  1550),  is  curious  and  interesting  as  being  derived  from  Por- 
tuguese sources,  who  were  in  modern  times  the  earliest  explorers  of 
these  coasts.  That  by  the  Spanish  writer  Campomanes  (in  his  Ante 
giiedad  Maiitima  de  Cartago , 4to,  Madrid,  1756)  is,  on  the  contrary, 
utterly  worthless.  ” 

*To  this  list  should  be  added  the  Histories  of  Ancient  Geography  by 
Bunbury  (1883)  and  Tozer  (1897). 


CARTHAGINIAN  CHRONOLOGY 
Migration  of  the  Phoenicians  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  b.  c. 

South  Arabia  and  the  Mediterranean,  about  2800 

Phoenician  cities  on  the  Mediterranean  subject  alternately 

to  Babylon  and  Egypt.  Rise  of  Assyria,  about  1300 

Greek  activity  and  extension  of  Israel;  fall  of  Troy,  about  1183 

Temporary  weakness  of  both  Assyria  and  Egypt  makes 
possible  the  independence  and  alliance  of  Israel  and 
Phoenicia,  1049-  976 

Phoenician  colonies  westward,  about  1000 

Founding  of  Carthage,  about  878 

At  this  period  the  Semitic  commercial  system  centering  in 
Mesopotamia,  Phoenicia  and  Carthage  controlled  the 
trade  of  the  world;  continued  expansion  of  Greece, 
and  foundation  of  Greek  colonies  in  Asia  Minor  and 
the  Black  Sea  and  westward  in  Italy,  Sicily  and  Gaul,  800-  600 


Founding  of  Rome,  753 

Decline  of  Assyria  under  this  competition,  650 

Greek  colony  established  at  Cyrene  in  North  Africa,  631 

Greek  commercial  agency  established  on  the  Nile,  630 

Fall  of  Nineveh,  606 

Extension  of  Carthaginian  dominions  in  Africa,  Sicily  and 

Sardinia,  550 

Defeat  of  the  Carthaginians  by  the  Greeks,  539 


10 


Fall  of  Babylon  and  rise  of  the  Persian  Empire,  538 

War  between  Carthage  and  Syracuse  for  the  possession  of 

Sicily,  533 

Change  of  Carthaginian  policy  toward  African  tribes  and 

enforcement  of  tribute,  533 

Rome  under  Etruscan  kings  extends  its  dominion  in  Italy,  528 

Egypt  conquered  by  the  Persians,  525 

Cyrene,  and  Africa  as  far  as  the  Carthaginian  possessions, 

conquered  by  the  Persians,  524 

Invasion  of  Italy  by  the  Gauls,  520 

Northern  India  conquered  by  the  Persians,  512 

Expulsion  of  the  Tarquins  and  establishment  of  the  Re- 
public of  Rome,  509 

The  Persians  advance  into  Thrace,  505 

Persian  advance  continues  into  Greece  until  checked  by 

the  defeat  of  Marathon,  490 


Second  effort  of  the  older  civilization  against  Greece  under 
Xerxes,  this  time  employing  all  its  forces  from  India 
in  the  east  to  Carthage  in  the  west,  ends  in  double 
victory  by  the  Greeks  over  the  Carthaginians  at  Him- 
era  in  Sicily  and  over  the  Persians  at  Salamis,  480 

Battle  of  Plataea;  expulsion  of  the  Persians  from  Greece,  479 

Probable  date  of  the  voyage  of  Hanno,  marking  the  decline 
of  Carthaginian  supremacy  in  the  northern  Mediter- 
ranean and  the  movement  to  extend  its  trade  westward 


by  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  470 

At  this  period  Carthage  was  by  far  the  richest  city  on 
the  Mediterranean. 

Invasion  of  Italy  by  the  Gauls,  capture  and  destruction  of 

Rome,  390 

Defeat  of  the  Etruscans  by  the  Romans,  310 

Defeat  of  the  Samnites,  Nubians  and  Gauls  by  the  Romans,  295 

Invasion  of  Italy  by  Pyrrhus  and  his  defeat  by  the  Romans,  280-  275 
Basis  of  Roman  wealth  and  power  laid  by  the  capture  and 

sack  of  Tarentum,  272 

First  Punic  war  ending  in  the  loss  of  Sicily  to  Rome,  264-  241 

Second  Punic  war  ending  in  the  loss  of  Spain,  Sardinia  and 

Corsica  to  Rome,  218-  201 

Third  Punic  war  ending  in  the  total  destruction  of  Cartha- 
ginian power,  149-  146 

Capture  and  destruction  of  both  Carthage  and  Corinth  and 

transfer  of  their  wealth  to  Rome,  146 


11 


Steady  advance  of  Roman  power  in  all  directions  ending 

with  complete  possession  of  the  Mediterranean  at  the  a.  d. 

death  of  Augustus,  13 

THE  “ BURNING  COUNTRY”  OF  §§  14-16 
Mungo  Park  ( Travels  in  the  Interior  Districts  of  Africa.  London, 
1799:  Chap,  xx),  thus  describes  the  burning  of  the  grass  in  the  dry 
season  in  Senegambia: 

“The  termination  of  the  rainy  season  is  likewise  attended  with 
violent  tornadoes;  after  which  the  wind  shifts  to  the  northeast,  and 
continues  to  blow  from  that  quarter  during  the  rest  of  the  year.  . . . 
The  grass  soon  becomes  dry  and  withered,  the  rivers  subside  very 
rapidly,  and  many  of  the  trees  shed  their  leaves.  . . . This  wind,  in 
passing  over  the  great  dessert  of  Sahara,  acquires  a very  strong  attrac- 
tion for  humidity,  and  parches  up  everything  exposed  to  the  current. 

. . . Whenever  the  grass  is  sufficiently  dry,  the  Negroes  set  it  on 
fire;  but  in  Ludamar  and  other  Moorish  countries  this  practice  is  not 
allowed,  for  it  is  on  the  withered  stubble  that  the  Moors  feed  their 
cattle  until  the  return  of  the  rains.  The  burning  of  the  grass  in 
Manding  exhibits  a scene  of  terrific  grandeur.  In  the  middle  of  the 
night,  I could  see  the  plains  and  mountains,  as  far  as  my  eye  could 
reach,  variegated  with  lines  of  fire;  and  the  light  reflected  on  the 
sky  made  the  heavens  appear  in  a blaze.  In  the  daytime  pillars  of 
smoke  were  seen  in  every  direction;  while  the  birds  of  prey  were 
observed  hovering  round  the  conflagration  and  pouncing  down  upon 
the  snakes,  lizards,  and  other  reptiles,  which  attempted  to  escape 
from  the  flames.  This  annual  burning  is  soon  followed  by  a fresh 
and  sweet  verdure,  and  the  country  is  thereby  rendered  more  healthful 
and  pleasant.” 

See  also  a paper  by  Dr.  Walther  Busse  in  Mitteilungen  aus  der 
Deutschen  Schutzgehieten,  1908,  No.  2,  reviewed  in  the  Geographical 
Journal  for  October,  1908. 

CARTHAGE  AND  THE  CARTHAGINIANS 

By  R.  BOSWORTH  SMITH,  M.  A.  London,  1877 
Chapter  I.  Extracts 

“The  land-locked  sea,  the  eastern  extremity  of  which  washes  the 
shores  of  Phoenicia  proper,  connecting  as  it  does  three  continents,  and 
abounding  in  deep  gulfs,  in  fine  harbors,  and  in  fertile  islands,  seems 
to  have  been  intended  by  nature  for  the  early  development  of  com- 
merce and  colonization.  By  robbing  the  ocean  of  half  its  mystery 
and  more  than  half  its  terrors,  it  allured  the  timid  mariner,  even  as 
the  eagle  does  her  young,  from  headland  on  to  headland,  or  from 


12 


islet  to  islet,  till  it  became  the  highway  of  the  nations  of  the  ancient 
world;  and  the  products  of  each  of  the  countries  whose  shores  i 
laves  became  the  common  property  of  all.  At  a very  early  period 
the  Etruscans,  for  instance,  that  mysterious  people  who  then  occu- 
pied with  their  settlements  Campania  and  Cisalpine  Gaul,  as  well  as 
that  extensive  intermediate  region  to  which  they  afterwards  gave  their 
name,  swept  all  the  Italian  seas  with  their  galleys,  half  piratical,  and 
half  commercial.  The  Greeks,  somewhat  later,  founded  (B.  C.  631) 
Cyrene  and  (B.  C.  560)  Barca  in  Africa,  (B.  C.  564)  Alalia  in 
Corsica,  and  (B.  C.  600)  Massilia  in  Gaul,  and  lined  the  southern 
shores  of  Italy  and  the  western  shores  of  Asia  Minor  with  that  fringe 
of  colonies  which  were  so  soon  to  eclipse  in  prosperity  and  power  their 
parent  cities.  Even  Egypt,  with  her  immemorial  antiquity  and  her 
exclusive  civilization,  deigned  to  open  (B.  C.  550)  an  emporium  at 
Naucratis  for  the  ships  and  commerce  of  the  Greeks,  creatures  of 
yesterday  as  they  must  have  seemed  in  comparison  with  her. 

‘‘But  in  this  general  race  of  enterprise  and  commerce  among  the 
nations  which  bordered  on  the  Mediterranean,  it  is  to  the  Phoenicians 
that  unquestionably  belongs  the  foremost  place.  In  the  dimmest  dawn 
of  history,  many  centuries  before  the  Greeks  had  set  foot  in  Asia 
Minor  or  in  Italy,  before  even  they  had  settled  down  in  secure  pos- 
session of  their  own  territories,  we  hear  of  Phoenician  setdements  in 
Asia  Minor  and  in  Greece  itself,  in  Africa,  in  Macedon,  and  in  Spain. 
There  is  hardly  an  island  in  the  Mediterranean  which  has  not  pre- 
served some  traces  of  these  early  visitors;  Cyprus,  Rhodes  and  Crete 
in  the  Levant;  Malta,  Sicily,  and  the  Balearic  Isles  in  the  middle 
passage;  Sardinia,  Corsica,  and  Elba  in  the  Tyrrhenian  Sea;  the 
Cyclades,  as  Thucydides  tells  us,  in  the  mid-iEgean;  and  even 
Samothrace  and  Thasos  at  its  northern  extremity,  where  Herodotus, 
to  use  his  own  forcible  expression,  himself  saw  a whole  mountain 
‘turned  upside  down’  by  their  mining  energy;  all  have  either  yielded 
Phoenician  coins  and  inscriptions,  have  retained  Phoenician  proper 
names  and  legends,  or  possess  mines,  long,  perhaps,  disused,  but 
which  were  worked  as  none  but  Phoenicians  ever  worked  them.  And 
among  the  Phoenician  factories  which  dotted  the  whole  southern  shore 
of  the  Mediterranean,  from  the  east  end  of  the  Greater  Syrtis  even  to 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  there  was  one  which,  from  a concurrence  of 
circumstances,  was  destined  rapidly  to  outstrip  all  the  others,  to  make 
herself  their  acknowledged  head,  to  become  the  Queen  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, and,  in  some  sense,  of  the  Ocean  beyond,  and  for  a space 
of  over  a hundred  years,  to  maintain  a deadly  and  not  an  unequal  con- 
test with  the  future  mistress  of  the  world. 


13 


‘‘The  rising  African  factory  was  known  to  its  inhabitants  by  the 
name  of  Kirjath-Hadeschath,  or  New  Town,  to  distinguish  it  from 
the  much  older  settlement  of  Utica,  of  which  it  may  have  been,  to 
some  extent,  an  offshoot.  The  Greeks,  when  they  came  to  know  of 
its  existence,  called  it  Karchedon,  and  the  Romans  Carthago.  The 
date  of  its  foundation  is  uncertain;  but  the  current  tradition  refers  it 
to  a period  about  a hundred  years  before  the  founding  of  Rome. 

‘ ‘In  her  origin,  at  least,  Carthage  seems  to  have  been,  like  other 
Phoenician  settlements,  a mere  commercial  factory.  Her  inhabitants 
cultivated  friendly  relations  with  the  natives,  looked  upon  themselves 
as  tenants  at  will  rather  than  owners  of  the  soil,  and,  as  such,  cheer- 
fully paid  a rent  to  the  African  Berbers  for  the  ground  covered  by 
their  dwellings.  Thus  much,  if  thus  much  only,  of  truth  is  contained 
in  the  legend  of  Dido,  which,  adorned  as  it  has  been  by  the  genius 
of  Virgil,  and  resting  in  part  on  early  local  traditions,  must  always 
remain  indissolubly  bound  up  with  the  name  of  Carthage. 

“It  was  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  alone  which,  in  the 
course  of  the  sixth  century,  dictated  a change  of  policy  at  Carthage, 
and  transformed  her  peace-loving  mercantile  community  into  the  war- 
like and  conquering  state,  of  which  the  whole  of  the  western  Medi- 
terranean was  so  soon  to  feel  the  power.  A people  far  less  k en- 
sighted  than  the  Phoenicians  must  have  discerned  that  it  was  their 
very  existence  which  was  at  stake;  at  all  events,  unless  they  were 
willing  to  be  dislodged  from  Africa,  and  Sicily,  and  Spain,  as  they  had 
already  been  dislodged  from  Italy  and  Greece  and  the  islands  of  the 
Levant,  by  the  flood  of  Hellenic  colonization,  they  must  alter  their 
policy.  Accordingly  they  joined  hands  (in  B.  C.  537)  with  their 
inveterate  enemies,  the  Etruscans,  to  prevent  a threatened  settlement 
of  some  exiled  Phocaeans  on  the  important  island  of  Corsica.  In 
Africa  they  took  up  arms  to  make  the  inhabitants  of  Cyrene  feel  that 
it  was  towards  Egypt  or  the  interior,  not  towards  Carthage,  that  they 
must  look  for  an  extension  of  their  boundaries;  and  in  Sicily,  by 
withdrawing  half  voluntarily  from  the  eastern  side  of  the  island  in 
which  the  Greeks  had  settled,  they  tightened  their  grip  upon  the 
western  portion  which,  as  being  nearer  to  Carthage,  was  more  impor- 
tant to  them,  and  where  the  original  Phoenician  settlements  of  Panor- 
mus,  Motye,  and  Soloeis  had  been  planted. 

“The  result  of  this  change  of  policy  was  that  the  western  half  of 
the  Mediterranean  became,  with  one  exception,  what  the  whole  of  it 
had  once  bidden  fair  to  be — a Phoenician  lake,  in  which  no  foreign 
merchantmen  dared  to  show  themselves.  It  was  a vast  preserve,  to 
be  caught  trespassing  upon  which,  so  Strabo  tells  us,  on  the  authority 


14 


of  Eratosthenes,  ensured  the  punishment  of  instant  death  by  drowning. 
No  promontory  was  so  barren,  no  islet  so  insignificant,  as  to  escape 
the  jealous  and  ever  watchful  eye  of  the  Carthaginians.  In  Corsica, 
if  they  could  not  get  any  firm  or  extensive  foothold  themselves,  they 
at  least  prevented  any  other  state  from  doing  the  like.  Into  their 
hands  fell,  in  spite  of  the  ambitious  dreams  of  Persian  kings  and  the 
aspirations  of  patriot  Greeks,  that  ‘greatest  of  all  islands,’  the  island 
of  Sardinia;  theirs  were  the  ./Egatian  and  the  Liparaean,  the  Balearic 
and  the  Pityusian  Isles;  theirs  the  tiny  Elba,  with  its  inexhaustible 
supply  of  metals;  theirs,  too,  Malta  still  remained,  an  outpost  pushed 
far  into  the  domain  of  other  advancing  enemies,  a memorial  of  what 
once  had  been,  and,  perhaps,  to  the  sanguine  Carthaginian  tempera- 
ment, an  earnest  of  what  might  be  again  hereafter.  Above  all  the 
Phoenician  settlements  in  Spain,  at  the  innermost  corner  of  the  great 
preserve,  with  the  adjacent  silver  mines  which  gave  to  these  settle- 
ments their  peculiar  value,  were  now  trebly  safe  from  all  intruders. 

“Elated,  as  it  would  seem,  by  their  naval  successes,  which  were 
hardly  of  their  own  seeking,  the  Carthaginians  thought  that  they  might 
now  at  least  become  the  owners  of  the  small  strip  of  African  territory 
which  they  had  hitherto  seemed  to  occupy  on  sufferance  only,  and 
they  refused  the  ground-rent  which,  up  till  now,  they  had  paid  to  the 
adjoining  tribes.  Step  by  step  they  enlarged  their  territories  at  the 
expense  of  the  natives,  till  the  whole  of  the  rich  territory  watered  by 
the  Bagradas  became  theirs.  The  Nomadic  tribes  were  beaten  back 
beyond  the  river  Triton  into  the  country  named,  from  the  roving 
habits  of  its  inhabitants,  Numidia,  or  into  the  desert  of  Tripolis,  and 
were  henceforward  kept  in  check  by  the  primitive  defence  of  a line 
of  ditch  and  rampart,  just  as,  in  earlier  times,  the  rich  plains  of  Baby- 
lonia had  been  protected  by  the  ‘wall  of  Semiramis’  from  the  incur- 
sions of  the  less  civilized  Medes.  The  agricultural  tribes  were  forced 
to  pay  tribute  to  the  conquerors  for  the  right  of  cultivating  their  own 
soil  or  to  shed  their  blood  on  the  field  of  battle  in  the  prosecution  of 
further  conquests  from  the  tribes  beyond. 

“Nor  did  the  kindred  Phoenician  settlements  in  the  adjoining 
parts  of  Africa  escape  unscathed.  Utica  alone,  owing  probably  to  her 
antiquity  and  to  the  semi-parental  relation  in  which  she  stood  to  Car- 
thage, was  allowed  to  retain  her  walls  and  full  equality  of  rights  with 
the  rising  power;  but  Hippo  Zarytus,  and  Adrumetum,  the  greater 
and  the  lesser  Leptis,  were  compelled  to  pull  down  their  walls  and 
acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the  Carthaginian  city.  All  along  the 
northern  coast  of  Africa  the  original  Phoenician  settlers,  and,  probably, 
to  some  extent,  the  Carthaginians  tnemselves,  had  intermarried  with 


15 


the  natives.  The  product  of  these  marriages  was  that  numerous  class 
of  Libyphoemcians  which  proved  to  be  so  important  in  the  history  of 
the  Carthaginian  colonization  and  conquest;  a class  which,  equidis- 
tant from  the  Berbers  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the  Carthaginians 
proper  on  the  other,  and  composed  of  those  who  were  neither  wholly 
citizens  nor  yet  wholly  aliens,  experienced  the  lot  of  most  half  castes, 
and  were  alternately  trusted  and  feared,  pampered  and  oppressed, 
loved  and  hated,  by  the  ruling  state- 

“The  original  monarchical  constitution — doubtless  inherited  from 
Tyre — was  represented  (practically  in  Aristotle’s  time,  and  theoreti- 
cally to  the  latest  period)  by  two  supreme  magistrates  called  by  the 
Romans  Suffetes.  Their  name  is  the  same  as  the  Hebrew  Shofetim, 
mistranslated  in  our  Bible,  Judges.  The  Hamilcars  and  Hannos  of 
Carthage  were,  like  their  prototypes,  the  Gideons  and  the  Samsons  of 
the  Book  of  Judges,  and  not  so  much  the  judges,  as  the  protectors  of 
their  respective  states.  They  are  compared  by  Greek  writers  to  the 
two  kings  of  Sparta,  and  by  the  Romans  to  their  own  consuls.  That 
they  were  in  the  earliest  times  appointed  for  life,  and  not,  as  is  com- 
monly supposed,  elected  annually,  is  clear  from  a variety  of  indica- 
tions; and,  like  the  ‘king  of  the  sacrifices’  at  Rome,  and  the  ‘king 
archon’  at  Athens,  they  seem,  when  the  kingly  office  itself  was  abol- 
ished, to  have  retained  those  priestly  functions  which,  according  to 
ancient  conceptions,  were  indissolubly  united  with  royalty. 

“Carthage  was,  beyond  doubt,  the  richest  city  of  antiquity.  Her 
ships  were  to  be  found  on  all  known  seas,  and  there  was  probably  no 
important  product,  animal,  vegetable,  or  mineral,  of  the  ancient 
world,  which  did  not  find  its  way  into  her  harbours  and  pass  through 
the  hands  of  her  citizens.  But  her  commercial  policy  was  not  more 
far-sighted  or  more  liberal  than  has  been  that  of  other  commercial 
states,  even  till  very  modern  times.  Free  trade  was  unknown  to  her; 
it  would  have  seemed  indeed  like  a contradiction  in  terms.  If  she 
admitted  foreign  merchantmen  bv  treaty  to  her  own  harbour,  she  took 
care  by  the  same  document  jealously  to  exclude  them  from  the  more 
important  harbours  of  her  dependencies.  She  allowed  her  colonies 
to  trade  only  so  far  as  suited  her  own  immediate  interests,  and  the 
precautions  she  took  made  it  impossible  for  any  one  of  them  ever  to 
become  a great  center  of  commerce,  still  less  to  dream  of  taking  her 
place. 


16 


Plan  of  Harbors  at  Carthage — after  Bosnvorth  Smith 

“But  the  most  important  factor  in  the  history  of  a people — 
especially  if  it  be  a Semitic  people — is  its  religion.  The  religion  of  the 
Carthaginians  was  what  their  race,  their  language,  and  their  history 
would  lead  us  to  expect.  It  was,  with  slight  modification,  the  religion 
of  the  Canaanites,  the  religion,  that  is,  which,  in  spite  of  the  purer 
Monotheism  of  the  Hebrews  and  the  higher  teaching  of  their  pro- 
phets, so  long  exercised  a fatal  fascination  over  the  great  bulk  of  the 
Hebrew  race.  The  Phoenician  religion  has  been  defined  to  be  ‘a 
deification  of  the  powers  of  Nature,  which  naturally  developed  into 
an  adoration  of  the  objects  in  which  those  powers  seemed  most 
active.’  Of  this  adoration  the  Sun  and  Moon  were  the  primary  ob- 
jects. The  Sun  can  either  create  or  destroy,  he  can  give  life  or  take 
it  away.  The  Moon  is  his  consort;  she  can  neither  create  nor  de- 
stroy, but  she  can  receive  and  develop,  and,  as  the  queen  of  night, 
she  presides  alike  over  its  stillness  and  its  orgies.  Each  of  these 
ruling  deities,  Baal-Moloch  or  the  Sun-god,  and  the  horned  Astarte 
or  the  crescent  Moon  worshipped  at  Carthage,  it  would  seem,  under 
the  name  of  Tanith,  would  thus  have  an  ennobling  as  well  as  a de- 
grading, a more  cheerful  as  well  as  a more  gloomy  aspect.  Unfor- 


17 


tunately,  it  was  the  gloomy  and  debasing  side  of  their  worship  which 
tended  to  predominate  alike  in  Phoenicia  proper  and  in  the  greatest 
of  the  Phoenician  colonies. 

“But  there  was  one  of  these  inferior  gods  who  stood  in  such  a 
peculiar  relation  to  Carthage,  and  whose  worship  seems  to  have  been 
so  much  more  genial  and  so  much  more  spiritual  than  the  rest,  that 
we  are  fain  to  dwell  upon  it  as  a foil  to  what  has  preceded.  This 
god  was  Melcarth,  that  is  Melech-Kirjat/i,  or  the  king  of  the  city;  he 
is  called  by  the  Greeks  ‘the  Phoenician  Hercules,’  and  his  name  itself 
has  passed,  with  a slight  alteration,  into  Greek  mythology  as  Meli- 
certes.  The  city  of  which  he  was  pre-eminently  the  god  was  Tyre. 
There  he  had  a magnificent  temple,  which  was  visited  for  antiquarian 
purposes  by  Herodotus.  ...  At  Carthage  Melcarth  had  not  even  a 
temple.  The  whole  city  was  his  temple,  and  he  refused  to  be  local- 
ized in  any  particular  part  of  it.  He  received,  there  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve, no  sacrifices  of  blood;  and  it  was  his  comparatively  pure  and 
spiritual  worship  which,  as  we  see  repeatedly  in  Carthaginian  history, 
formed  a chief  link  in  the  chain  that  bound  the  parent  to  the  various 
daughter-cities  scattered  over  the  coasts  and  islands  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. 

“The  Carthaginian  proper  names  which  have  come  down  to  us 
form  one  among  many  proofs  of  the  depth  of  their  religious  feelings, 
for  they  are  all,  or  nearly  all,  compounded  with  the  name  of  one  or 
other  of  their  chief  gods.  Hamilcar  is  he  whom  Melcarth  protects; 
Hasdrubal  is  he  whose  help  is  in  Baal;  Hannibal,  the  Hanniel  of  the 
Bible,  the  grace  of  Baal;  and  so  on  with  Bomilcar,  Himilco,  Ethbaal, 
Maherbal,  Adherbal,  and  Mastanabal. 

“But  if  the  life  of  the  great  capitalists  of  Carthage  was  as  brilliant 
as  we  have  described  it,  how  did  it  fare  with  the  poorer  citizens,  with 
those  whom  we  call  the  masses,  till  we  sometimes  forget  that  they  are 
made  up  of  individual  units?  If  we  know  little  of  the  rich,  how 
much  less  do  we  know  of  the  poor  of  Carthage  and  her  dependencies? 
The  city  population,  with  the  exception — a large  exception  doubtless 
— of  those  engaged  in  commerce,  well  contented,  as  it  would  seem,  like 
the  Romans  under  the  Empire,  if  nothing  deprived  them  of  their  bread 
and  their  amusement,  went  on  eating  and  marrying  and  multiplying 
until  their  numbers  became  excessive,  and  then  they  were  shipped 
off  by  the  prudence  of  their  rulers  to  found  colonies  in  other  parts  of 
Africa  or  in  Spain.  Their  natural  leaders,  or,  as  probably  more  often 
happened,  the  bankrupt  members  of  the  aristocracy,  would  take  the 
command  of  the  colony,  and  obtain  free  leave,  in  return  for  their  ser- 
vices, to  enrich  themselves  by  the  plunder  of  the  adjoining  tribes. 


18 


“To  so  vast  an  extent  did  Carthage  carry  out  the  modern  prin- 
ciple of  relieving  herself  of  a superfluous  population  and  at  the  same 
time  of  extending  her  empire,  by  colonization,  that,  on  one  occasion, 
the  admiral  Hanno,  whose  ‘Periplus’  still  remains,  was  dispatched 
with  sixty  ships  of  war  of  fifty  oars  each,  and  with  a total  of  not  less 
than  thirty  thousand  half-caste  emigrants  on  board,  for  the  purpose  of 
founding  colonies  on  the  shores  of  the  ocean  beyond  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules. 

“But  the  document  recording  this  voyage  is  of  an  interest  so 
unique,  being  the  one  relic  of  Carthaginian  literature  which  has  come 
down  to  us  entire,  that  we  must  dwell  for  a moment  on  its  contents. 
It  was  posted  up  by  the  admiral  himself,  as  a thank-offering,  in  the 
temple  of  Baal,  on  his  return  from  his  adventurous  voyage,  the  first 
attempt,  made  by  the  Phoenicians  to  reach  the  equator  from  the  north- 
west of  Africa.  It  is  preserved  to  us  in  a Greek  translation  only,  the 
work  probably  of  some  inquisitive  Greek  traveller,  some  nameless 
Herodotus  who  went  wandering  over  the  world  like  his  matchless 
fellow-countryman,  his  note-book  always  in  his  hand,  and  always 
jotting  down  everything  that  was  of  interest  to  himself,  or  might  be 
of  importance  to  posterity. 

“What  was  the  general  nature  of  the  Carthaginian  trade  in  the 
distant  regions  thrown  open  to  them  we  happen  to  know  from  another 
ancient  writer  whose  authority  is  beyond  dispute.  There  was  in 
Libya — so  the  Carthaginians  told  Herodotus — beyond  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules,  an  inhabited  region  where  they  used  to  unload  their  car- 
goes, and  leave  them  on  the  beach.  After  they  had  returned  to  their 
ships  and  kindled  a fire  there,  the  natives  seeing  the  rising  column  of 
smoke,  ventured  down  to  the  beach,  and  depositing  by  the  merchan- 
dise what  they  considered  to  be  its  equivalent  in  gold,  withdrew  in 
their  turn  to  their  homes.  Once  more  the  Carthaginians  disem- 
barked, and  if  they  were  satisfied  with  the  gold  they  found,  they 
carried  it  off  with  them,  and  the  dumb  bargain  was  complete.  If 
not,  they  returned  a second  time  to  their  ships  to  give  the  natives  the 
chance  of  offering  more.  The  law  of  honor  was  strictly  observed  by 
both  parties;  for  neither  would  the  Carthaginians  touch  the  gold  till 
it  amounted,  in  their  opinion,  to  the  full  value  of  the  merchandise; 
nor  would  the  natives  touch  the  merchandise  till  the  Carthaginians 
had  clinched  the  transaction  by  carrying  off  the  gold. 

“This  strange  story,  long  looked  upon  as  fabulous,  has,  like  many 
other  strange  stories  in  Herodotus,  been  proved  by  the  concurrent 
testimony  of  modern  travelers  to  be  an  accurate  account  of  the  dumb 
trade  which  still  exists  in  many  parts  of  Africa,  and  which  traversing 


19 


even  the  Great  Desert,  brings  the  Marroquin  into  close  commercial 
relations  with  the  Negro,  and  supplies  the  great  Mohammedan  king- 
doms of  the  Soudan  with  the  products  of  the  Mediterranean.  It 
proves  also  that  the  gold-fields  of  the  Niger,  so  imperfectly  known  to 
us  even  now,  were  well  known  to  the  Carthaginians,  and  that  the 
gold-dust  with  which  the  natives  of  Ashanti  lately  purchased  the 
retreat  of  the  European  invader  was  the  recognized  medium  of  ex- 
change in  the  days  of  the  father  of  history. 

“To  defray  the  expenses  of  this  vast  system  of  exploration  and 
colonization,  as  well  as  of  their  enormous  armies,  the  most  ruinous 
tribute  was  imposed  and  enacted  with  unsparing  rigor  from  the  sub- 
ject native  states,  and  no  slight  one  either  from  the  cognate  Phoenician 
cities.  The  taxes  paid  by  the  natives  sometimes  amounted  to  a half 
of  their  whole  produce,  and  among  the  Phoenician  dependent  cities 
themselves  we  know  that  the  lesser  Leptis  alone  paid  into  the  Car- 
thaginian treasury  the  sum  of  a talent  daily.  The  tribute  levied  on 
the  conquered  Africans  was  paid  in  kind,  as  is  the  case  with  the 
rayahs  of  T urkey  to  the  present  day,  and  its  apportionment  and  col- 
lection were  doubtless  liable  to  the  same  abuses  and  gave  rise  to  the 
same  enormities  as  those  of  which  Europe  has  lately  heard  so  much. 
Hence  arose  that  universal  disaffection,  or  rather  that  deadly  hatred, 
on  the  part  of  her  foreign  subjects,  and  even  of  the  Phoenician  de- 
pendencies, towards  Carthage  on  which  every  invader  of  Africa  could 
safely  count  as  his  surest  support.  Hence  the  ease  with  which 
Agathocles,  with  his  small  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men,  could  over- 
run the  open  country,  and  the  monotonous  uniformity  with  which  he 
entered,  one  after  another,  two  hundred  towns,  which  Carthaginian 
jealousy  had  deprived  of  their  walls,  hardly  needing  to  strike  a blow. 
Hence,  too,  the  horrors  of  the  revolt  of  the  outraged  Libyan  mercena- 
naries,  supported  as  it  was  by  the  free-will  contributions  of  their  golden 
ornaments  by  the  Libyan  women,  who  hated  their  oppressors  as  per- 
haps women  only  can,  and  which  is  known  in  history  by  the  name  of 
the  ‘War  without  Truce,’  or  the  ‘Inexpiable  War.  ’ 

“It  must,  however,  he  borne  in  mind  that  the  inherent  differ- 
ences of  manners,  language,  and  race  between  the  natives  of  Africa 
and  the  Phoenician  incomer  were  so  great;  the  African  was  so  unim- 
pressible,  and  the  Phoenician  was  so  little  disposed  to  understand,  or 
to  assimilate  himself  to  his  surroundings,  that  even  if  the  Carthaginian 
government  had  been  conducted  with  any  equity,  and  the  taxes  levied 
with  a moderation  which  we  know  was  far  from  being  the  case,  a gulf 
profound  and  impassable  must  probably  have  always  separated  the  two 
peoples.  This  was  the  fundamental,  the  ineradicable  weakness  of 


20 


the  Carthaginian  Empire,  and  in  the  long  run  outbalanced  all  the 
advantages  obtained  for  her  by  her  natives,  her  ports  and  her  well- 
stocked  treasury;  by  the  energy  and  the  valour  of  her  citizens;  and 
by  the  consummate  genius  of  three,  at  least,  of  her  generals.  It  is 
this,  and  this  alone,  which  in  some  measure  reconciles  us  to  the  mel- 
ancholy, nay,  the  hateful  termination  of  the  struggle,  on  the  history  of 
which  we  are  about  to  enter; 

Men  are  we,  and  must  grieve  when  e’en  the  name 

Of  that  which  once  was  great  has  Dassed  away. 

But  if  under  the  conditions  of  ancient  society,  and  the  savagery  of  the 
warfare  which  is  tolerated,  there  was  an  unavoidable  necessity  for 
either  Rome  or  Carthage  to  perish  utterly,  we  must  admit,  in  spite  of 
the  sympathy  which  the  brilliancy  of  the  Carthaginian  civilization,  the 
heroism  of  Hamilcar  and  Hannibal,  and  the  tragic  catastrophe  itself 
call  forth,  that  it  was  well  for  the  human  race  that  the  blow  fell  on 
Carthage  rather  than  on  Rome.  A universal  Carthaginian  empire  could 
have  done  for  the  world,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  nothing  comparable  to 
that  which  the  Roman  universal  empire  did  for  it.  It  would  not  have 
melted  down  national  antipathies,  it  would  not  have  given  a common 
literature  or  language,  it  would  not  have  prepared  the  way  for  a higher 
civilization  and  an  infinitely  purer  religion.  Still  less  would  it  have 
built  up  that  majestic  fabric  of  law  which  forms  the  basis  of  the  legis- 
lation of  all  the  states  of  Modern  Europe  and  America.” 


Harbors  of  Carthage  as  they  appear  to-day. — Photographed  by  Garrigues,  Tunis. 


21 


PHOENICIANS  AND  CARTHAGINIANS 

“The  Phoenicians  for  some  centuries  confined  their  navigation 
within  the  limits  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  Propontis,  and  the  Euxine, 
land-locked  seas,  which  are  tideless  and  far  less  rough  than  the  open 
ocean.  But  before  the  time  of  Solomon  they  had  passed  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  and  affronted  the  dangers  of  the  Atlantic.  Their  frail  and 
small  vessels,  scarely  bigger  than  modern  fishing-smacks,  proceeded 
southwards  along  the  West  African  coast,  as  far  as  the  tract  watered 
by  the  Gambia  and  Senegal,  while  northwards  they  coasted  along 
Spain,  braved  the  heavy  seas  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  passing  Cape 
Finisterre,  ventured  across  the  mouth  of  the  English  Channel  to  the 
Cassiterides.  Singularly,  from  the  West  African  shore,  they  boldly 
steered  for  the  Fortunate  Islands  (the  Canaries),  visible  from  certain 
elevated  points  of  the  coast,  though  at  170  miles  distance.  Whether 
they  proceeded  further,  in  the  south  to  the  Azores,  Madeira,  and  the 
Cape  Verde  Islands,  in  the  north  to  the  coast  of  Holland,  and  across 
the  German  Ocean  to  the  Baltic,  we  regard  as  uncertain.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  from  time  to  time  some  of  the  more  adventurous  of  their 
traders  may  have  reached  thus  far;  but  their  regular,  settled  and  es- 
tablished navigation  did  not,  we  believe,  extend  beyond  the  Scilly 
Islands  and  coast  of  Cornwall  to  the  northwest,  and  to  the  southwest 
Cape  Non  and  the  Canaries.  The  commerce  of  the  Phoenicians 
was  carried  on  to  a large  extent  by  land,  though  principally  by  sea. 
It  appears  from  the  famous  chapter  (xxvii)  of  Ezekiel  which  describes 
the  richness  and  greatness  of  Tyre  in  the  6th  century  B.  C.,  that 
almost  the  whole  of  Western  Asia  was  penetrated  by  the  Phoenician 
caravans,  and  laid  under  contribution  to  increase  the  wealth  of  the 
Phoenician  trader.  . . . Translating  this  glorious  burst  of  poetry  into 
prose,  we  find  the  following  countries  mentioned  as  carrying  on  an 
active  trade  with  the  Phoenician  metropolis:  Northern  Syria,  Syria  of 
Damascus,  Judah  and  the  land  of  Israel,  Egypt,  Arabia,  Babylonia, 
Assyria,  Upper  Mesopotamia,  Armenia,  Central  Asia  Minor,  Ionia, 
Cyprus,  Hellas  or  Greece,  and  Spain.” — G.  Rawlinson,  History  of 
Phoenicia , ch.  9. 

“Though  the  invincible  industry  and  enterprise  of  the  Phoenicians 
maintained  them  as  a people  of  importance  down  to  the  period  of  the 
Roman  empire,  yet  the  period  of  their  widest  range  and  greatest  effi- 
ciency is  to  be  sought  much  earlier — anterior  to  700  B.  C.  In  these 
remote  times  they  and  their  colonists  (the  Carthaginians  especially) 
were  the  exclusive  navigators  of  the  Mediterranean;  the  rise  of  the 
Greek  maritime  settlements  banished  their  commerce  to  a great  degree 
from  the  TEgean  Sea,  and  embarrassed  it  even  in  the  more  westerly 


22 


waters.  Their  colonial  establishments  were  formed  in  Africa,  Sicily, 
Sardinia,  the  Balearic  Isles  and  Spain.  The  greatness  as  well  as  the 
antiquity  of  Carthage,  Utica,  and  Gades,  attest  the  long-sighted  plans 
of  Phoenician  traders,  even  in  days  anterior  to  the  first  Olympiad. 
We  trace  the  wealth  and  industry  of  Tyre,  and  the  distant  navigation 
of  her  vessels  through  the  Red  Sea  and  along  the  coast  of  Arabia, 
back  to  the  days  of  David  and  Solomon.  And  as  neither  Egyptians, 
Assyrians,  Persians  or  Indians  addressed  themselves  to  a sea-faring  life, 
so  it  seems  that  both  the  importation  and  the  distribution  of  the  prod- 
ducts  of  India  and  Arabia  into  Western  Asia  and  Europe  were  per- 
formed by  the  Idumaean  Arabs  between  Petra  and  the  Red  Sea — by 
the  Arabs  of  Gerrha  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  joined  as  they  were  in 
later  times  by  a body  of  Chaldaean  exiles  from  Babylonia — and  by  the 
more  enterprising  Phoenicians  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  in  these  two  seas  as 
well  as  in  the  Mediterranean.” — G.  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  pt.  2, 
ch.  18. 

“The  commerce  of  Carthage  maybe  conveniently  considered 
under  its  two  great  branches — the  trade  with  Africa  and  the  trade  with 
Europe.  The  trade  with  Africa  . . . was  carried  on  with  the  bar- 
barous tribes  of  the  inland  country  that  could  be  reached  by  caravans, 
and  of  the  sea-coast.  Of  both  we  hear  something  from  Herodotus, 
the  writer  who  furnishes  us  with  most  of  our  knowledge  about  these 
parts  of  the  ancient  world.  . . . The  goods  with  which  the  Cartha- 
ginian merchants  traded  with  the  African  tribes  were  doubtless  such  as 
those  which  civilized  nations  have  always  used  in  their  dealings  with 
savages.  Cheap  finery,  gaudily  colored  clothes,  and  arms  of  inferior 
quality,  would  probably  be  their  staple.  Salt,  too,  would  be  an  im- 
portant article.  . . . The  articles  which  they  would  receive  in  ex- 
change for  their  goods  are  easily  enumerated.  In  the  first  place  comes 
. . . gold.  Carthage  seems  to  have  had  always  at  hand  an  abundant 
supply  of  the  precious  metal  for  use,  whether  as  money  or  as  plate. 
Next  to  gold  would  come  slaves.  . . . Ivory  must  have  been  another 
article  of  Carthaginian  trade,  though  we  hear  little  about  it.  The 
Greeks  used  it  extensively  in  art.  . . . Precious  stones  seem  to  have 
been  another  article  which  the  savages  gave  in  exchange  for  the  goods 
they  coveted.  . . . Perhaps  we  may  add  dates  to  the  list  of  articles 
obtained  from  the  interior.  The  European  trade  dealt,  of  course, 
partly  with  the  things  already  mentioned,  and  partly  with  other  articles 
for  which  the  Carthaginian  merchants  acted  as  carriers,  so  to  speak, 
from  one  part  of  the  Mediterranean  to  another.  Lipara,  and  the 
other  volcanic  islands  near  the  extremity  of  Italy,  produced  resin; 
Agrigentum,  and  possibly  other  cities  of  Sicily,  traded  in  sulphur 
brought  down  from  the  region  of  Etna;  wine  was  produced  in  many 


23 


of  the  Mediterranean  countries.  Wax  and  honey  were  the  staple 
goods  of  Corsica.  Corsican  slaves,  too,  were  highly  valued.  The 
iron  of  Elba,  the  fruit  and  the  cattle  of  the  Balearic  islands,  and  to  go 
further,  the  tin  and  copper  of  Britain,  and  even  amber  from  the  Bal- 
tic, were  articles  of  Carthaginian  commerce.  Trade  was  carried  on 
not  only  with  the  dwellers  on  the  coast,  but  with  inland  tribes.  Thus 
goods  were  transported  across  Spain  to  the  interior  of  Gaul,  the  jeal- 
ousy of  Massilia  (Marseilles)  not  permitting  the  Carthaginians  to  have 
any  trading  stations  on  the  northern  coast  of  that  country.” — A.  J. 
Church  and  A.  Filman,  The  Story  of  Carthage,  pt.  3,  ch.  3. 

THE  DOMINION  OF  CARTHAGE 

“All  our  positive  information,  scanty  as  it  is,  about  Carthage  and 
her  institutions,  relates  to  the  fourth,  third  and  second  centuries 
B.  C.  ; yet  it  may  be  held  to  justify  presumptive  conclusions  as  to  the 
fifth  century  B.  C.,  especially  in  reference  to  the  general  system  pur- 
sued. The  maximum  of  her  power  was  attained  before  her  first  war 
with  Rome,  which  began  in  364  B.  C.  ; the  first  and  second  Punic 
wars  both  of  them  greatly  reduced  her  strength  and  dominion.  Yet 
in  spite  of  such  reduction  we  learn  that  about  150  B.  C.  shortly  be- 
fore the  third  Punic  war,  which  ended  in  the  capture  and  depopula- 
tion of  the  city,  not  less  than  700,000  were  computed  in  it,  as  occu- 
pants of  a fortified  circumference  of  above  twenty  milles,  covering  a 
peninsula  with  its  isthmus.  Upon  this  isthmus  its  citadel  Byrsa 
was  situated,  surrounded  by  a triple  wall  of  its  own,  and  crowned  at 
its  summit  by  a magnificent  temple  of  Esculapius.  The  numerous 
population  is  the  more  remarkable,  since  Utica  (a  considerable  city, 
colonized  from  Phoenicia  more  anciently  than  even  Carthage  itself, 
and  always  independent  of  the  Carthaginians,  though  in  the  condition 
of  an  inferior  and  discontented  ally)  was  within  the  distance  of  seven 
miles  of  Carthage  on  the  one  side,  and  Tunis  seemingly  not  much 
further  off  on  the  other.  Even  at  that  time,  too,  the  Carthaginians 
are  said  to  have  possessed  300  tributary  cities  in  Libya.  Yet  this  was 
but  a small  fraction  of  the  prodigious  empire  which  had  belonged  to 
them  certainly  in  the  fourth  century  B.  C.,  and  in  all  probability  also 
between  480-410  B.  C.  That  empire  extended  eastward  as  far  as 
the  Altars  of  the  Philaeni,  near  the  Greater  Syrtis, — westward  all  along 
the  coast  to  the  Pillars  of  Herakles  and  the  western  coast  of  Morocco. 
The  line  of  coast  southeast  of  Carthage,  as  far  as  the  bay  called  the 
Lesser  Syrtis,  was  proverbial  (under  the  name  of  Byzacium  and  the 
Emporia)  for  its  fertility.  Along  this  extensive  line  were  distributed 
indigenous  Libyan  tribes,  living  by  agriculture;  and  a mixed  popula- 
tion called  Liby-Phoenician.  . . . Of  the  Liby-Phoenician  towns  the 


24 


number  is  not  known  to  us,  but  it  must  have  been  prodigiously  great. 
. . . A few  of  the  towns  along  the  coast— Hippo,  Utica,  Adrume- 
tum,  Thapsus,  Leptis,  etc. — were  colonies  from  Tyre,  like  Carthage 
itself.  ...  Yet  the  Carthaginians  contrived  in  time  to  render  every 
town  tributary,  with  the  exception  of  Utica.  ...  At  one  time,  im- 
mediately after  the  first  Punic  war,  they  took  from  the  rural  cultivators 
as  much  as  one-half  of  their  produce,  and  doubled  at  one  stroke  the 
tribute  levied  upon  the  towns.  . . . The  native  Carthaginians,  though 
encouraged  by  honorary  marks  to  undertake  . . . military  service 
were  generally  averse  to  it,  and  sparingly  employed.  ...  A chosen 
division  of  2,500  citizens,  men  of  wealth  and  family,  formed  what 
was  called  the  Sacred  Band  of  Carthage,  distinguished  for  their  braver}' 
in  the  field  as  well  as  for  the  splendour  of  their  arms,  and  the  gold  and 
silver  plate  which  formed  part  of  their  baggage.  We  shall  find  these 
citizen  troops  occasionally  employed  on  service  in  Sicily;  but  most 
part  of  the  Carthaginian  army  consists  of  Gauls,  Iberians,  Libyans, 
etc. , a mingled  host  got  together  for  the  occasion,  discordant  in  lan- 
guage as  well  as  in  customs.” — G.  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  pt.  2, 
ch.  81. 


THE  NEGRITOS 

(THE  HAIRY  PEOPLE  OF  § 18) 

“We  have  seen  that  the  African  pygmies  probably  reached  Europe 
during  the  Stone  Ages,  and  were  certainly  frequent  visitors  at  the 
Courts  of  the  Pharaohs.  At  present  they  are  all  denizens  of  the 
woodlands,  everywhere  keeping  to  the  shelter  of  the  Welle,  Ituri, 
Ruwenzori,  Congo,  and  Ogoway  forests  within  the  tropics.  To  this 
may  be  due  the  fact  that  they  are  not  black  but  of  a yellowish  colour, 
with  reddish-brown  woolly  head,  somewhat  hairy  body,  and  ex- 
tremely low  stature  ranging  from  3 ft.  (Lugard)  to  perhaps  4 ft.  6 in. 
at  most.  The  hirsuteness  and  dwarfish  size  were  already  noticed  two 
thousand  five  hundred  years  ago  by  the  Carthaginian  Admiral  Hanno, 
to  whom  we  owe  the  term  gorilla  applied  by  him,  not  to  the  an- 
thropoid ape  so  named  by  Du  Chaillu,  but  to  certain  hairy  little 
people  seen  by  him  on  the  west  coast — probably  the  ancestors  of  the 
dwarfs  still  surviving  in  the  Ogoway  district. 

“Here  they  are  called  Abongo  and  Obongo,  and  elsewhere  are 
known  by  different  names — Tikitiki,  Akka,  or  Wochua  in  the  Welle 
region,  Dume  in  Gallaland,  Wandorobo  in  Masailand,  Batwa  south 
of  the  Congo,  and  many  others.  Dr.  Ludwig  Wolf  connects  the 
Batwa  both  with  the  northern  Akka  and  the  southern  Bushmen,  all 
being  the  scattered  fragments  of  a primeval  dwarfish  race  to  be  regarded 
as  the  true  aborigines  of  equatorial  Africa.  They  live  exclusively  by 


25 


the  chase  and  the  preparation  of  palm-wine,  hence  are  regarded  by 
their  Bantu  friends  as  benevolent  little  people  whose  special  mission 
is  to  provide  the  surrounding  tribes  with  game  and  palm-wine  in  ex- 
change for  manioc,  maize,  and  bananas.  Many  are  distinguished  by 
sharp  powers  of  observation,  amazing  talent  for  mimicry,  and  a good 
memory.  Junker  describes  the  comic  ways  and  nimble  action  of  an 
Akka  who  imitated  with  marvelous  fidelity  the  peculiarities  of  persons 
he  had  once  seen — Moslems  at  prayer,  Emin  Pasha  with  his  four 
eyes’  (spectacles),  another  in  a towering  rage,  storming  and  abusing 
everybody,  and  Junker  himself,  ‘whom  he  took  off  to  the  life,  re- 
hearsing down  to  the  minutest  details,  and  with  surprising  accuracy, 
my  anthropometric  performance  when  measuring  his  body  at  Rumbek 
four  years  before.’  ” — A.  H.  Keane,  The  World  s Peoples,  pp.  148-9. 


From  a relief  in  the  Temple  of  Bubastis. 

PYGMIES 

Homer,  Iliad  III,  6 — Chapman’ s translation : 

“At  all  parts  like  the  cranes  that  fill,  with  harsh  confusion, 

Of  brutish  clanges  all  the  air  and  in  ridiculous  war 
(Eschewing  the  unsuffer’d  storms,  shot  from  the  winter’s  star), 

Visit  the  ocean,  and  confer  the  Pygmei  soldiers’  death.” 

Aristotle:  “The  cranes  go  up  as  far  as  the  lakes  above  Egypt, 
where  the  Nile  originates;  there  the  pygmies  are  living;  and  this  is 
not  a fable,  but  pure  truth;  men  and  horses  are,  as  they  say,  of  small 
stature,  and  live  in  grottoes.  ” 


26 


Karnak  temple,  Ptolemaic  era — of  the  nome  of  Nubia: 

“The  dwarfs  of  the  southern  countries  come  to  him,  bringing 
their  tributes  to  his  treasury.” 

H.  M.  Stanley,  In  Darkest  Africa , Vol.  ii,  passim:  On  pages 
40-42,  describing  a couple  of  pygmies,  one  of  whom,  a man  about 
21  years  old,  measuring  4 feet  in  height,  he  observes: 

“This  was  the  first  full-grown  man  we  had  seen.  His  color  was 
coppery,  the  fell  over  the  body  was  almost  feathery,  being  nearly  half 
an  inch  in  length.  His  head-dress  was  a bonnet  of  priestly  form, 
decorated  with  a bunch  of  parrot  feathers;  . . . 

“Twenty-six  centuries  ago  his  ancestors  captured  the  five  young 
Nassamonian  explorers,  and  made  merry  with  them  at  their  villages 
on  the  banks  of  the  Niger.  Even  as  long  as  forty  centuries  ago  they 
were  known  as  pygmies,  and  the  famous  battle  between  them  and  the 
storks  was  rendered  into  song.  On  every  map  since  Hecataeus’  time, 
500  years  B.  C.,  they  have  been  located  in  the  region  of  the  Moun- 
tains of  the  Moon.  When  Mesu  led  the  children  of  Jacob  out  of 
Goshen,  they  reigned  over  Darkest  Africa  undisputed  lords:  they 
are  there  yet,  while  countless  dynasties  of  Egypt  and  Assyria,  Persia, 
Greece  and  Rome,  have  flourished  for  comparatively  brief  periods, 
and  expired.  And  these  little  people  have  roamed  far  and  wide  dur- 
ing the  elapsed  centuries.  From  the  Niger  banks,  with  successive 
waves  of  larger  migrants,  they  have  come  hither  to  pitch  their  leafy 
huts  in  the  unknown  recesses  of  the  forest.  Their  kinsmen  are 
known  as  Bushmen  in  Cape  Colony,  as  Watwa  in  the  basin  of  the 
Lulungu,  as  Akka  in  Monbuttu,  as  Balia  by  the  Mabode,  as  Wam- 
butti  in  the  Ihuru  basin,  and  as  Batwa  under  the  shadows  of  the 
Lunas  Montes.” 


CARTHAGINIAN  TRADING 
Herodotus,  iv,  196: 

“The  Carthaginians  further  say  that  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Her- 
cules there  is  a region  of  Libya,  and  men  who  inhabit  it;  when  they 
arrive  among  these  people  and  have  unloaded  their  merchandise,  they 
set  it  in  order  on  the  shore,  go  on  board  their  ships  and  make  a great 
smoke;  that  the  inhabitants,  seeing  the  smoke,  come  down  to  the 
sea,  and  then  deposit  gold  in  exchange  for  the  merchandise,  and 
withdraw  to  some  distance  from  the  merchandise;  that  the  Cartha- 
ginians, going  ashore,  examine  the  gold,  and  if  the  quantity  seems 
sufficient  for  the  merchandise,  take  it  up  and  sail  away;  but  if  it  is 
not  sufficient,  they  go  on  board  their  ships  again  and  wait;  the  natives 
then  approach  and  deposit  more  gold,  until  they  have  satisfied  them; 


27 


neither  party  ever  wrongs  the  other;  for  they  do  not  touch  the  gold 
before  it  is  made  adequate  to  the  value  of  the  merchandise,  nor  do 
the  natives  touch  the  merchandise  before  the  other  party  has  taken  the 
gold.” 


Mediterranean  Galley  of  the  period  of  Hanno’s  Periplus 
Redrawn  from  a Greek  Vase 
in  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  New  Yoik 


Mediterranean  Sailing  Vessel 
From  a Mosaic  of  Carthage  in  the  Roman  Period 
In  the  Museum  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia 


Native  method  of  clearing’  the  ground  for  the  planting  of  crops, 
still  in  general  use  in  West  Africa. 

(See  text,  §§  13-17,  and  note,  p.  11.) 


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CHIEF  OF  THE  FOREIGN  TRADE  BUREAU 

DUDLEY  BARTLETT 


From  the  Press  of  the  Commercial  Museum,  Philadelphia 


The  Periplus  of  the  Erythraean  Sea 

Travel  and  Trade  in  the  Indian  Ocean 
by  a Merchant  of  the  First  Century 

Translated  from  the  Greek  and  annotated 

by  WILFRED  H.  SCHOFF,  A.  M. 

Secretary  of  the  Commercial  Museum,  Philadelphia 

With  numerous  illustrations  and  a map  in  colors,  showing  the 
entire  known  world  at  the  date  of  this  work,  political  divisions, 
national  boundaries,  leading  commercial  centres,  and  trade-routes. 

8vo.  pp.  vi— 328 : $2.00,  net.  By  mail,  $2.17 

The  Periplus  of  the  Erythraean  Sea  is  one  of  those  human  documents,  like 
the  journals  of  Marco  Polo  and  Columbus  and  Vespucci,  which  express  not  only 
individual  enterprise,  but  the  awakening  of  a whole  race  toward  new  fields  of 
geographical  discovery  and  commercial  achievement.  It  is  the  first  record  of  or- 
ganized trading  <voith  the  nations  of  the  East,  in  ‘vessels  built  and  commanded  by 
subjects  of  the  IV ester n ‘world. 

The  author  of  the  Periplus  was  an  Egyptian  Greek,  a Roman  subject,  who 
traded  from  the  Red  Sea  down  the  East  African  coast  and  as  far  as  Southern 
India,  in  the  second  half  of  the  first  century  after  Christ.  Like  Hippalus,  who 
taught  the  Roman  world  the  use  of  the  monsoons,  he  steered  his  course  straight 
across  the  ocean  before  the  trade-winds,  without  compass  or  other  aids  to  naviga- 
tion. The  Periplus  is  a merchant-captain’s  log,  an  original  and  truthful  record 
of  navigation  and  trade. 

The  notes  comprise  an  exhaustive  survey  of  the  international  trade  between 
the  great  empires  of  Rome,  Parthia,  India  and  China,  at  the  beginning  of  intel- 
ligent interaction  from  end  to  end  of  the  continental  mass;  of  the  mediation  of 
the  lesser  kingdoms,  in  Abyssinia  (the  first  known  record  of  that  African  state), 
Arabia,  Southern  India  and  Further  India  (the  first  accurate  record  of  those  re- 
gions in  the  Roman  world),  Ceylon  and  Central  Asia;  of  the  articles  dealt  in, 
the  methods  of  trading,  the  trade-routes  and  trade-centres;  of  the  political  and 
commercial  alignment  of  the  world’s  powers  of  the  1st  century;  and  include  numer- 
ous new  identifications  of  articles  and  places,  important  to  the  history  of  the  period. 

The  book  contains  a historical  introduction,  an  inquiry  into  the  date  and 
authorship  of  this  Periplus,  and  a complete  bibliography.  Also,  a classified  list 
of  articles  of  trade  mentioned  in  this  Periplus;  a list  of  articles  subject  to  duty  at 
Alexandria  in  the  Roman  period;  a summary  of  opinions  of  various  commentators 
regarding  date  and  authorship;  a list  of  rulers  of  various  kingdoms  mentioned  in 
this  Periplus,  with  identifications;  and  an  alphabetical  index. 

LONGMANS,  GREEN,  AND  CO. 

FOURTH  AVENUE  & 30th  STREET,  NEW  YORK 
LONDON,  BOMBAY,  AND  CALCUTTA 


